The Color Line
In the typical structure of this book club, I like to alternate between Italian authors and Italian American authors, however, given that it is Black History Month and one of my favorite authors recently came out with a new book. So without further ado, our February Book of The Month is The Color Line by Igiaba Scego.
In this historical fiction novel, we follow Lafanu Brown, a black indigenous woman who goes to Italy in 1887 to escape her difficult past. Meanwhile, in 2019, a Somali woman is desperately trying to bring her young cousin to Europe with her. In this exploration of the other, we see how the past and present intersect.
I love dual-timeline novels for this exact reason, they remind us that we are not all that removed from our ancestors, and history itself.